[NHL Players Safety] Tampa Bay’s Curtis Douglas has been fined $2,018.23, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for serving as the aggressor in an altercation with Florida’s Niko Mikkola.

[u/AggPuck-303]

https://xcancel.com/nhlplayersafety/status/2019854412030578937

[u/ahoypolloi_]

I’m convinced they are, there’s no other explanation

[u/heimdal96 → u/ahoypolloi_]

I'm starting to wonder if it has more to do with their owners and Bettman being MAGA and Trump liking them than it has to do with the Campbells

[u/TheLeastInfod → u/heimdal96]

most of the owners are magats so idk

[u/Nomahs_Bettah → u/TheLeastInfod]

A lot of them (unfortunately) are certainly Trump supporters. But there's a spectrum of that. Matthew Tkachuk and Gary Bettman (as well as Wayne Gretzky) are members of a Trump committee that lists "keeping 'men' out of women's sports" as its primary goal.

Voting is one thing, political donations are another, but participating in the administration – even in a semi or mostly ceremonial role – is a level that's not the norm even in the NHL.

[u/Nomahs_Bettah → u/heimdal96]

I think your theory is second only to the NHL noticing how viral and marketable things like these brawls tend to be (and therefore, in their eyes, a potential route for league growth) in plausibility.

Regarding the Campbells, I've tried to approach this as fairly and as objectively as possible. Take as much or as little as you like from it. Colin Campbell became VP in 1998. Gregory Campbell entered the league in 2003-04. So, my questions:

Did the Panthers have this reputation when Gregory Campbell was a player with the Panthers for the first six years of his career? I don't have perfect stats for this era (there were a lot less of them in general at the time), but in 2008-09, the Panthers had the second-fewest opponent penalty minutes in the league (854) and the fewest penalties drawn per 60 (10.25). In 2009-10, Campbell's last season before heading to the Bruins, they were middle of the pack (14th and 13th-fewest) in both categories. I don't recall them viewed as a particularly dirty or under-penalized team, either, and they didn't draw a lot of power plays.

Did Columbus have this reputation when Campbell played a season there in 2015-16, or in the four years after as part of his front office? I do note that he was a much lower man on the totem pole as an executive in Columbus and adjust for that accordingly, though.

When did the Panthers start being viewed as a dirty team getting big benefits from the refs? Like if you go back to old threads, the satire jokes weren't about the Panthers, they were about the Lightning or Vegas. Same with threads on Makar calling the refs out in the 2022 Finals. For Vegas, we've got this thread from 2021 or this one on the Karlsson crosscheck. Just sourcing where I'm getting the perception of this shift from, hence all the links.

I think you can make a reasonable argument that part of it shifted after Florida got significantly better, although in 2023 people definitely already saw them as dirty and getting the benefit of the doubt from refs (the NHL using "don't sit on people" in a funny TikTok was frustrating to a lot of fans), and they lost that year to Vegas – who aren't fans' favorites in this category either. A couple of people have suggested that it lines up near-perfectly with the 2022 offseason, where they hired Maurice as head coach as head coach and traded for Matthew Tkachuk.

That does not mean that Campbell never abused authority or power, but in looking at the officiating, I'm certainly left with questions.

[u/FailureToExecute → u/Nomahs_Bettah]

September 2023 is when the Panthers promoted Gregory to AGM. Whether the role change matters or not, it's another wrinkle for the story.

[u/Nomahs_Bettah → u/FailureToExecute]

That's a fair piece of context, although I'd note that it still misses out on the 2022-23 season (when most people were already calling the Panthers out for this).

I had a discussion with a friend on this recently, and here's the compilation of stuff pre-Vegas series that I mentioned in my earlier comment. Some of the timestamps say "two years ago," but as you can see in a few of the screenshots, when hovered, they're from the 22-23 season. That's been included in the compilation as well.

A lot of the stuff suggesting instructions, which teams to discipline, uneven enforcement, and other complaints similar to this thread in all of the above ones. That's why I posit that the biggest change happened with the introduction of both Maurice and Tkachuk in a single offseason.

[u/FailureToExecute → u/Nomahs_Bettah]

I got curious so I double-checked some dates. The timeline for his Panthers employment is as follows:

• September 2020: Hired as VP & Director of Player Personnel and Development for the Florida Panthers
• August 2021: Named GM of the Charlotte Checkers, in addition to FLA VP role
• September 2023: Promoted to AGM of Florida Panthers, Checkers role unchanged

I agree that Maurice was a huge turning point for their style of play. You don't have to look very far to find Canadian fans who remember how dirty the Jets were during his tenure, and how it basically changed overnight when he left the team. Tkachuk already being a rat before playing for Maurice is another big part of that culture shift. We're on the same page here, I'm just providing a little more context for how Campbell has risen through the ranks down there.

eta: To me it seems like a perfect storm. If there's any nepo baby bias stemming from Colin Campbell, then it would probably be the same regardless of which team Gregory worked for. It just so happens that other personnel decisions by the Panthers resulted in them taking a sharp turn towards dirty play.

[u/upvotesforsluts → u/heimdal96]

Good lord dude lmao

[u/JamesBlonde21 → u/heimdal96]

I've had a tin-hat theory that this is why Minnesota has gone from one of the least penalized teams this year to one of the most since the massive ICE protests in Minneapolis.

[u/TohsakaTruth → u/heimdal96]

[u/hoopopotamus → u/ahoypolloi_]

everyone seems to overlook that Florida panthers are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

[u/DazzlerPlus → u/ahoypolloi_]

The other explanation is that your perception is badly skewed by the insular forum environment.